


The World You Love

by LittleDidTheyKnow



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Karedevil Week, Karedevil if you squint, Nelson & Murdock & Page, core 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 13:06:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15752277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDidTheyKnow/pseuds/LittleDidTheyKnow
Summary: Just a few snippets of my favorite avocados. Here's hoping for some season 3 Nelson & Murdock & Page happiness!





	1. Cleaning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meinhiding](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meinhiding/gifts).



> Started out revolving around moments Matt wanted to ask Karen out, but it evolved slightly. These are just happy scenes between my favorite people.

It would take some time for Nelson and Murdock to become the esteemed law firm Matt Murdock had dreamed about.

He told himself that as he heard Karen coughing from the smell of industrial strength cleaner as she cleaned the office bathroom.   

Foggy had to file paperwork for their new firm, and he had been cold-calling clients in the hopes that he would get a nibble, or at least put their name out there. He could barely hear the rejection on the other end of the line because he was so distracted with the sound of her trying to breathe with her elbow over her face.

“You know you don’t have to be the one to do this, right?” Matt said as he peeked through the crack in the bathroom door.

He could always feel it when she smiled at him. It was like walking into rays of sunshine on a sunny day.

“Someone’s gotta do it,” she said as she finished wiping down the first layer of filth from the sink and rinsed brownish dust down the drain.

“You’re right.” He reached his hand out and took the sponge from her, and she handed it over immediately. “I vote Foggy.”

“I think he might disagree,” she said as she pulled a new sponge out of a box and used some elbow grease to get to a strange green speck.

“That’s the thing about him being gone, Ms. Page. It’s two votes to one.”

Karen smiled at the possibility of getting out of the dirty work, even if it meant passing it off on someone she adored. “I’m pretty sure his vote has more weight than mine.”

“You’d be wrong about that.” Matt chuckled. “You’re just as new to this as us. And just as important.”

Karen beamed at him. She knew she’d inserted herself into the firm, but the fact that he considered her an equal made her incredibly happy. She paused as her eyes watered, tilting her head against his shoulder without thinking.

He stopped scrubbing for a full thirty seconds before she noticed.

“Man this cleaner is terrible.” She said with a fake cough as they both went back to work. “It’s making my eyes water.”

“Yeah,” he said quickly. “Mine too.”


	2. Decorating

“Listen, Murdock, you don’t know the first thing about decorating. You told me so yourself!”

“Well, apparently neither do you.” Matt said petulantly. “Because green couches do not say _serious law firm._ ”

Foggy’s voice started to gain volume with each word.

“First off, _they were free._ And second off, _you don’t even know what they looked like, Matt_!”

“You’re right. Because I’m picturing Oscar the Grouch based on the green you just described.”

Foggy wrinkled his nose and huffed. “ _Grouch_ is just the way you’re _acting.”_

“Guys, please,” Karen said loudly. She dropped her purse and a box of printer paper on a broken chair near the door, causing it to slump just a little bit more. She looked down and waited for the inevitable, but it didn’t happen. “What the hell is going on?”

“I found couches, Karen. _Free_ couches!” He knew how desperate Karen was to find free furniture. He didn’t need Matt; she was going to jump to his rescue.

“Uh, huh.” She figured Matt had to have a reason for being so heated, so she tried to remain neutral. “Where exactly did you find them, Foggy? Craigslist?”

He shook his head and Matt smiled.

Foggy glared at him. “They were… in an alley by the Chinese restaurant up the street— but that isn’t the point. They’re not _bad_. Someone probably just upgraded.”

“In an alley?” She asked with a single nod.

“By the Chinese restaurant, yes.” Matt could barely say the sentence without choking on his laughter.

“ _Seriously, Murdock_!” Foggy was bright red and Matt looked like he’d stepped in it.

Karen had never seen her two bosses in such a mood. Things were rough, there was no denying it, but they usually _respectfully_ disagreed. The Healy case had all of them out of sorts. It did not feel like a win for a variety or reasons, one of which was the fact that the man was now dead.

“What’s the harm in looking, Matt?” She said with forced optimism. “And while we’re out we could get something to eat? It’s almost 2 pm and I’m sure you guys are hungry...”

She bit her lip in the hopes that they didn’t see what she was doing. She could only assume they were this grouchy for a reason. Matt smiled.

“You’re right, Karen.”

“She’s right?”

“What’s the harm in looking?” Matt said nicely.

Foggy looked confused. “Right,” he said carefully.

Ten minutes later Foggy wished he had never said anything.

The three members of Nelson & Murdock stood before a grass green couch that must have been at least forty years old and smelled distinctly like urine. Foggy cringed as Karen took two steps back and lifted her hands up in protest, accidentally hitting Matt behind her.

Matt placed his hand on her back as she tried to regain her balance and then burst into laughter.

“That good, huh?” He whispered.

“They’re _beautiful_ , Foggy.” She said loudly so that he didn’t hear his partner’s comment. Matt could hear it in her voice and in her heartbeat. She was trying so hard not to make his best friend feel like an idiot that it took lying her ass off.

Foggy tried to recover. “In all fairness, I was in a cab when I saw them.”

It had been a long week, and that apparently meant that Matt was back in college, annoyed with his messy best friend and at the end of his rope. “You haven’t taken a cab since we gave up the good job, Foggy.”

She lightly smacked Matt in the shoulder. “ _Why?”_ She asked him.

He felt guilty instantly. “Sorry, Fog. I know you were only trying. And hey, we aren’t to this point yet, buddy. The furniture we have is _fine_.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I can’t believe I thought these would work.”

Karen tried her best to make him feel better.

“I’m sure it didn’t look that… They were probably pretty once—” She turned her head into Matt’s shoulder, tears escaping her eyes as she tried not to laugh.

“You’re probably right, Karen.” Matt helped. “Just what color of green do you think they were originally?”

He said it with such innocence. She should have known he was being an ass.

“Please don’t make me say…” she mumbled into his chest.

Foggy smiled. “I must have been really hungry. It clouds your judgment, you know.”

Matt was too busy caressing the back of Karen’s head while she laughed against him. She pulled away when she’d finally composed herself.

That evening, Matt and Foggy poured over craigslist ads to find something. Karen returned from running errands, dropping her purse on the same chair, which collapsed from the weight. She put her hand to her forehead, hoping the boys didn’t notice.

The laughter in the next room told her that was not the case.

 


	3. Office Equipment

“Stupid piece of garbage!” 

Karen hit the tray of Nelson and Murdock’s “new” printer that she had purchased at auction. 

“They’re never going to keep you if you keep screwing up—“ she said under her breath. That was the moment Matt chose to open the door to the office. 

“Everything alright?” He asked. She was there after hours, just like him. 

She tried to breeze past what he’d just asked. “What are you doing here so late?”

“Picking up a file. You don’t get paid nearly enough to still be here, Karen. And did I just hear you yelling?”

She shook her head. Of course he couldn’t just _ignore_ her outburst. Even though she ignored plenty with him...

“I’m fine, I’m just tired.” She looked at the flashing red code and thought about how great a manual would be right about now. 

“Is that thing acting up again?”

Karen looked down and cringed. She didn’t want either of her bosses to know how often the equipment she’d bought acted up. She jumped at the opportunity to make copies to prevent them from noticing. 

She was too tired to lie.

“Yup.” She gulped as her eyes started to sting. It had been a long week. A long month, actually. “Just a reminder that stupidity has consequences.”

“I think you’re being entirely too hard on yourself.”

She sighed. “I wish you were right.”

He walked over and opened the side panel, finding the tiny edge of paper that stuck out and pulling it out with pliers that rested on the floor. 

“There we go, see? No biggie.”

She covered her mouth as he pressed the big green print button, not even questioning how he knew how to use a machine he’d never needed.

“I know you had your reasons for doing this, Karen.”

She nodded because he was right. She did it to save her own ass.

“Yeah…” she knew he wasn’t asking for an explanation. She wanted to delve into why he was ok with it, but she knew there could be consequences. “I’m just upset because I’m supposed to be making people’s lives easier, not harder

“You do, Karen. You have no idea how valuable you are to this firm.” 

“Thanks for saying that.” He knew she didn’t believe it— at least not in that moment. 

“And hey, my printer works fine, so this doesn’t affect me at all.” 

She burst into laughter. The man always knew how to make her forget why she was upset. She looked at him and smiled. 

“That’s true. I don’t know why I was so upset.”


	4. Chocolate Cake

Karen licked frosting from her lips.

There was no way she was going to be able to think about work. Analyzing exactly which chocolates made up the quadruple chocolate cake seemed productive enough.

_Milk, Dark, White, Kahlua…_

_Not a chocolate._ She told herself.

She could have sworn her tongue was tingling from the wonderful flavors, thinking there had to be something in this cake that wasn’t exactly legal. Then she thought about who made it and shrugged it off. There was no way.

She didn’t even notice the “Mmmm” that escaped her lips.

It must have been too loud because she saw Matt stand up and leave his desk. Then she did something she wasn’t proud of.

She put the box inside her middle desk drawer. There might have been some box-smashing involved.

He tilted his head at his doorway and looked toward her. “What are you ‘mmm-ing’ Page?”

“Nothing.” She said quickly. She wasn’t proud of that either.

He wasn’t buying it. “What’s in the drawer?”

“Paper, pens, post-its. You need something, Matt?” She said in her most helpful voice.

He pulled a chair away from the wall and sat across from her.

“Was that Mr. Laurent that just left this office?” he asked.

She gulped. “He stopped by, yes.”

“And did he, by chance, deliver his _payment_ for our legal service?”

It was starting to feel like an interrogation. She told herself he couldn’t break her. She was a strong person and this was the time to prove that to herself.

“You mean, like, money?” She said sweetly. “No.”

Matt’s lips curled into a grin, the likes of which she’d never seen before. It was almost… devious.

“I mean _any kind_ of payment. Quite possibly in the form of baked goods.”

She smiled at him.

“Who wants to know?”

“I think you know exactly who wants to know. And I think you are you hiding the only income this firm has in that desk drawer right there.” He pointed to the correct side and everything.

_Damn it._

“Come on, Matt! He said it was for me!” Her voice rang with desperation. As if begging was going to get her what she wanted.

His tone did not waver. He was lawyer Matt right now and lawyer Matt wanted cake.

“In a trade for my legal expertise, if I remember correctly.”

“He told me not to give you any.” Her heartbeat didn’t waver. That must have happened.

“I’m sure she was joking,” Matt responded. There it was. Nervousness. He’d hit the right spot.

“He doesn’t even like you!” Lawyer Matt loved it when he got someone to this point. He was in the home stretch.

“He just does that to mess with me. We both know he loves me.”

Mr. Laurent had made jabs at him each time he came in, and everyone knew that he had a crush on Karen. One day it was, “she’s skin and bones! You don’t pay her enough,” the next day he was telling Matt that he was going to steal her away to come work at his bakery. He always had some kind of baked good for her and Matt was positive that his accent got heavier with each visit because he loved the giggle that resulted from each sentence he uttered. The 80-year-old had a way with words that usually ended with a proposal of marriage to the secretary each time he left Nelson and Murdock.

“Fine!” She pulled opened her desk drawer and pulled out a box. Matt lifted it and his mouth dropped open.

“Karen Page! This is heavy. You were going to keep it all to yourself?”

“Sue me,” she said with a huge bite in her mouth.

He grabbed a fork from the box and moaned after his first taste. She laughed at how quickly it affected him.

“I will not forget this betrayal—” he said mid-bite, “come bonus time.”

She laughed, nearly spitting out the rest of her bite, causing him to get those little wrinkles around his eyes that said he’d already forgiven her.

“This is way better than money,” she said happily.

Matt just nodded. He wasn’t looking forward to the point when Mr. Laurent no longer needed their services.

“It’s too bad we have to share that _income_ with Foggy.”

Matt’s eyebrows went up.

“Oh, um.. we don’t have to do _that…_ ”

“Excuse me?” She said in her most patronizing voice

“I mean, he… _we_ were the ones who did all that work.” He was flailing. The only reason Foggy hadn’t worked much on this particular case was because he was picking up the slack everywhere else.

Karen was happy to see that she wasn’t the only bad person in the room.

“We did work really hard.”

“Right,” he agreed.

“And what was he even doing?”

“Probably nothing.”

“You think?” She giggled.

“I mean, I can’t see him, but, look at him now. Probably napping right?”

Karen looked through his window. He was typing and talking on the phone at the same time.

“Yeah, Matt. Napping”

He laughed. “This can be our little secret.

She winced. “I think I’m going to feel guilty.”

His mouth was full again. “Fight it.”

Foggy hung up the phone. Matt spoke quickly. “Maybe we should go eat this in my office…”

She questioned the likelihood of being able to get from point A to point B without being spotted. “You know if I had an office this wouldn’t be a problem.”

Matt nodded and then realized what that actually meant. “Wait. Because you’d be eating this alone?”

“Wow, Matt. When did you become so paranoid?”

He laughed drawing Foggy’s attention.

“What are you two eating?” he said, his door still closed.

“A salad,” Karen yelled as she tried to swallow another mouthful.

The moment he opened his door they knew they were in trouble.

“ _That_ is a pink box.” He scolded.

They both nodded.

“Salads do not come in pink boxes, Karen.” She looked at him like he was being absurd. “And you two are sneaking away in here like you committed a crime. You see the problem there?”

They shook their heads in unison

“Mr. Laurent bring that?”

They shook their heads again.

Foggy was shocked. _“He doesn’t even like, Matt, Karen!”_

“That’s what I said.” she glared at Matt, who shrugged.

“He gave it to _her_ , Foggy. What was I going to do when she offered some to me? Say no? We both know that would be incredibly rude.”

“You offered some to _him_ , but you were going to hide it from _me_?”

Foggy took the fork from Karen’s hand and took a large bite, shaking his head shamefully. 

“I didn’t _offer_ him anything, Foggy.” foggy shook his head like he didn’t believe her. “Really, Foggy, I was going to keep it all to myself!”

The phone started ringing and they both looked at Karen’s phone. It was his extension. 

Foggy threw his hands in the air.

“I don’t want to talk with you right now!” he said dramatically. Karen burst into laughter.

“Nelson & Murdock, Franklin Nelson speaking,” he said in his fakest angry voice. Both Matt and Karen couldn’t contain themselves.

“You see what you did, Karen? Foggy was so upset, he didn’t even try to get more cake.” Matt took another bite like it had nothing to do with what he just said.

She smiled. “I know.”

His eyes went wide. “You know, I always agreed with Foggy when he said you were pure sunshine, but... I’m pretty sure, and don’t take this the wrong way....you might just be pure evil.”

She took another bite and shrugged. “I think I'm going to wear that like a badge of honor. And then I’m going to finish this cake.”

She took another bite and Matt couldn’t help but be… impressed at how willing she was to sacrifice her friends for something so delicious. He wanted to be judgmental, or, at the very least, annoyed, but he couldn’t. He just thought it was adorable.


End file.
